Beginnings
by katlity
Summary: Tomoyo has been living away from home for years, and she's a different woman now. As a successful costume designer for a theater company, when she's convinced to go home, she's terrified to face what she left behind. Sakura x Tomoyo COMPLETE
1. Chapter 1

The Beginnings

I'm going to end all of your suspicions about my updates right now. My updates are few, and far in between, so if you decide you like this at all, I recommend you put this story on your alert list, or whatever it is. Reviews are nice, especially ones that make good suggestions about my writing. :) Thanks for reading.

"Who **is** that, Tomoyo?" asked a curious co worker as she passed, "Your models seem to all look like the same person no matter what type of costume you draw." The young intern waddled away awkwardly because of the stack of books she was carrying, while mumbling something about 'those crazy Japanese'.

Tomoyo wasn't distracted at all by her co worker's invading question, and continued to be totally captivated by her work of designing a costume for a new theatre production coming out called "Once upon a Summer's Midnight". She thought that the costumes were a bit outrageous, but she couldn't help designing them, for one of the characters reminded her of somebody that was once very dear to her. Finally, after a couple hours of extensive, intense work, she set her art pencils down and stacked up her papers, put them into her folder, and set out for a lunch break.

"Brigitt!" called the dark haired Asian to another girl across the hall, "It's time for lunch!"

Brigitt knowingly nodded, apologized to the person she was conversing with, and grabbed her purse to follow her briskly walking friend out of the theatre and around the corner to the traditional place to eat. Fish and Chips it was called.

Tomoyo sat down at a table, where she cought the eye of her usual waitress and gave her the signal for "the usual" which was basically a very silly combination between a hand gesture and a tap-dance. This was the only way to get the waitresses attention, and to get their meal to them the fastest, because you don't want to make crazy people wait for their meals. The waitres had obviously planned on their arrival, and began to walk over with their usual meals already prepared for them.

Brigitt looked from the waitress to Tomoyo with a look of awe in her eyes. "Impressive," she said hypnotically.

The waitress winked at Tomoyo in a flirtatious way. She said to Tomoyo, "We have an..." she paused, obviously for dramatic effect, "understanding." Although this sentence sounded like "we have an understanding," it really was, "come back soon," which really was, "If I wasn't working at this minimum wage job, I'd take you back home and play with you until you wouldn't be able to stand."

Tomoyo winked at her as she turned to leave.

"Wow," said Brigitt, "So it's true, you can wrap anybody around your little finger." She giggled to herself, as she flicked back her freshly cut brown bob of hair. " But anyway, it's almost Christmas time. Are you going home? You've basically finished all of your designs." Brigitt sat back on her side of the booth, as if preparing her retort to the answer she knew she was going to receive.

Tomoyo rolled her eyes, but said nothing, but opted to sip her drink delicately, while avoiding eye contact with her friend across the table.

Brigitt rolled her eyes, and prepared herself for the tongue-lashing she was about to give her friend. "Oh, come _on_, Tomoyo! You can't stay in Canada forever! You have to go home sometime!" Brgitt stuck her manicured fingernail right in Tomoyo's face, and told her, "you're avoiding something! You're mom will want to see you! Your old friends! Your home town derserves a visit, no matter how small, how quaint, how quiet it is!" A pause. "Tomoyo?"

The wavy haired Asian was looking right past the polished nail in her face, and giving inviting eyes to the waitress from before, who promptly came over with a written on piece of napkin.

"I'm off at five, honey. Call me."

Tomoyo winked at her, while checking her out. "Will do," she said, as she received the piece of napkin from the other woman.

Brigitt retracted her hand, and put her head down on the table in defeat.

"Oh, fine. I'll go home for the break," she said, defeated. "but only because you're a big pain in the ass."

Tomoyo let out a huge sigh. She could not believe that she was going back to visit her hometown. She had specifically dressed down for the occasion to tell the place that she did not care enough for it to dress herself up. She was wearing sweatpants, and old t-shirt, and her old running sneakers, so at least she would be comfortable for her flight back to Japan. She turned to her waitress friend from before, whom she had quite gotten used to. "Thanks for driving me in, babe."

"Don't mention it." Getting close to her new friend, the blonde woman lightly grazed her hands over Tomoyo's shoulders and breathed lightly on her neck. "Be sure to call me when you come home. I'll take care of you." She chuckled lightly, and further dove her face into Tomoyo's neck.

"Can't wait, babe," she said as she carressed the face hidden in her flesh.

"Would the two of you please let go of each other for two seconds and focus? Tommy, you've got a plane to catch, and you haven't even a clue as to where you're supposed to catch it," nagged Brigitt from behind the two. Tomoyo laughed at the nickname. She let go of her new friend, and went over to embrace the old one.

Tomoyo ddn't let go of Brigitt for a good minute. "Don't miss me too much. I'll be back before you know it."

"Not soon enough."

"Bye bye!"

With that, Tomoyo walked off in the direction of her plane gate, which said right on the ticket anyway, so there was no need to fuss over where to go. Her and her black hair bounced towards the gate, which she found to be currently boarding once she got there. To emphasize her dislike to the people also boarding the plane, she let out another huge sigh which turned into an annoyed groan, whic made the other passangers look at her with concern, probably for their own safety on this flight.

Once on board and seated, she already regretted agreeing to go home. For she knew what awaited her there.


	2. Chapter 2

Beginnings

Thanks so much, reviewers! And thanks to the people who have put me on their alert list. You give me such confidence, and for that, prezzies! For everybody! Well, and my prezzies, you may have another chapter. Thanks, again, everyone.

"My little Tomoyo!!!" Sonomi Daidouji Squeeled as she knocked over her only daughter with a glomp with the force of a battering ram. Tomoyo made an awkward laugh as she patted her mother on the back.

"Hey, Mom. What's going on?"

Sonomi looked confused. She circled her daughter, and poked her nose forward at her, as if inspecting. "You're sure different, Pumpkin," she claimed. Tomoyo shrugged her shoulders, and headed to retrieve her luggage. "All grown up, I guess..." Walking up to the luggage retrieval with her daughter, Tomoyo's mother pointed at each bag that came into view, and asked if that was hers.

"Is that yours?"

"No."

"This one?"

"No."

"Oh. Is it this one?"

Tomoyo shook her head in disdain. Without remark, she grabbed her own plain black bags, and began to walk towards the exit. Her mom caught up with her, attempting to look straight into her face. "you're not my Tomoyo," she said, "what's going on with you? I haven't heard from you in years! Now, you come out of the blue back home, and you can't even..." she waved her arms around in confusion, clearly trying to find her words, "I don't know, be you!" Sonomi took in a deep breath, and let it out slowly. She reached out and pet Tomoyo's slightly greasy hair, and said to her, "I'm just a little excited to see my little girl. Sorry, honey."

Tomoyo smiled at her mother. For the first time in years, she felt herself genuinely smile because she found beauty within the world, in the form of sympathy and love from her mother. "It's okay mom. Let's go home. I'd like some tea." Sonomi looked at her daughter. Tomoyo looked back at her, and she recognized it as the same way that her mom used to look at her every time she sang a solo, or when she showed her a new costume she had made for... a long forgotten friend.

Sonomi and Tomoyo Daidouji found themselves walking towards the car, giggling and teasing each other like they had just hung out yesterday. Once all of her things were in the car, and they had headed for home, the daughter asked her mother to stop by the store, so that she could pick up her old favorite tea.

Tomoyo got out of the car and told her mother to wait for her to quckly buy the tea, so she headed towards the store, which was a quiant little place, selling mostly specialty teas, coffees, sugars, salts, and some foreign sweets. Tomoyo saw a few things that she recognized from Canada, like some chocolate bars, and some penny candy, which made her smile. She grabbed her liquorice root tea, and took it to the counter with every intention of handing over whatever amount of cash she had to pay for to be able to drink this tea once again. Once she had moved to North America, she had planned to leave most of her culture behind her. She still couldn't believe that Brigitt convinced her to go home for Christmas.

"D-Daidouji?" asked a familiar, but scared voice from behind her.

She turned around, dreading to face him, but there he stood. Lii Shaoran.

"Tomoyo, I..." she paused, moved closer and stared straight into her face.

Tomoyo was ready. She was ready to crash into Sakura's lips as soon as she finished her sentence. She could already feel Sakura twisting her hands all up in Tomoyo's long flowing hair, and sliding her tongue over hers, which would send her into a heavenly trance. After so long, she was finally going to hold her best friend for so long in her arms as more than just her friend.

"Yes?" Tomoyo asked with anticipation, already moving closer and closer to her crush.

"I... I think that he's the one, Tomoyo. I love him."

The petite asian could not help but stare horrified into the face of the man she lost her first love to. She was not expecting to see him to soon, although she knew that she would face him eventually, her choice of time was not this one. She pushed back her greasy hair, and covered her gross sweats as best as she could with two arms. "Um, hi."

"Oh. How are you?" he asked rather awkwardly. Once she had stopped panicking, she noticed he was donning a similar attire, with equally oily skin and greasy hair.

"Fine," feeling bitter, she asked, "How's Sakura?"

"Huh? I don't know."

"Oh," she sighed. She handed over the required amount of money for her tea, and walked past him mumbling a casual "see ya later."

He turned around and caught up to her with two quick steps, and put his hand on her shoulder ad turned her around to face him. His own face seemed more sorry now than the awkward it was earlier. "I'd really like to catch up. See where you've been, and stuff..."

Tomoyo inspected his face, to try and sense his motives. She couldn't find anything other than sincerity in his eyes, so she said, "All right. Well... the cake is all mine. I haven't eaten my mother's cake in years." She looked him up and down for a moment, and couldn't resist the urge to snort at how their appearence were so similar in their sweatwear and greasy-oiliness. "why don't you come by once you've cleaned up an settled?"

For the first time, Syaoran looked down at himself and noticed his attire. He looked seemingly embarrased, and his response was, "Right. See ya." He almost rushed himself out of the store, carrying a platic bag full of what looked like Japanese goodies, which made Tomoyo wonder where he had been since she last saw him, which was graduation day just before she moved to Canada to study theatre costume design and construction.

Tomoyo continued her business of her tea buying, and once she recieved her tea and change, she left the store, and sat down with her mom in the car. Sonomi looked at her daughter and said, "I hope you invited him over to have teach with us."

Not at all surprised her mother knew about her awkward chat with Lii, she merely nodded. "We both need to get cleaned up before he comes over though. Then we'll all have tea."

Later, when home was reached, the Daidouji's entered the mansion-like house, and Tomoyo did what she said she would, which was to clean up. She showered, blow dried her hair, and got dressed. Something about the designer that hadn't changed was her taste in clothes. She was still a very classy dresser, and most of her clothes consisted of clothes you usually saw in movies about fashion. For this instance, she grabbed out of her bag a very stylish bnlakc pencil skirt with a blue silk blouse, and for the purpose of this occasion, she threw on some cute cotton socks with little hearts as the pattern on them.

Once she was done getting clean and dressed, she looked around. She was staying in her old room for the time she was "vacationing" at home. She saw that some of her things had been packed away. Many of her old clothes and toys were packed in boxes and labeled "give-away", and some of her things were in the exact place she remembered leaving them.

Tomoyo stared at the bottom left drawer of her dresser and wondered about if it was still there. She held her stare with the drawer, hoping that it would give up and lose its cool. Oh, wait, it's a dresser and doesn't have a "cool" to begin with.

She couldn't resist. She pulled out the drawer to reveal its only contents. A small lock box, containing what used to be the most important possesions she and he mother witheld, hence, the lockbox. It, however, was misplaced, and obviously moved since she had seen it. The young woman guessed her mother probably visited the box from time to time.

To revisit her first love.


	3. Chapter 3

Beginnings

Disclaimer: I don't own Cardcaptor Sakura... Do we even have to do these disclaimers anymore?

AN: Thanks, everybody for the reviews, and especially TemptationWaits for the good advice. ^_^

Lii Syaoran had arrived, and in _style_. Tomoyo's jaw nearly dropped at the sight of him, partly because it was shocking to see him look so good after seeing him look so bad, but mostly because of the way his clothes clung to his tight, hot body. Luckily, Syaoran failed to notice Tomoyo's staring, on account of the fact that he was staring at her goodies. Never had he imagined that Tomoyo, the sweet clever little girl would look... sexy!

Sonomi called to the two from the garden where her and her daughter had set up a table for the three of them to sit and chat. "Tea is ready! Come and get it!" she announced. Tomoyo laughed nervously, and lead Lii through her old house and into the back garden where her mother had already set the places, and poured the tea. The two young adults sat at the table across from each other, trying to avoid eye contact.

Not long after they had all sat down to catch up, they were talking about what had happened since they had been away, what had changed, and what stayed exactly the same. But before they had been talking for too long, Sonomi's cell phone rang. She rolled her eyes, "I told them that I didn't want to have to deal with work today." With that, she excused herself from the table. Lii and Tomoyo giggled to themselves, because the clarity of Ms. Daidouji's screeching in spite of the fact there were two whole rooms between them was impecable.

Tomoyo sipped away at her tea, and waited for her mother to return. But after a certain time of awkward silence between her and the young man, she decided that her mom wasn't coming back anytime soon. Without wasting another moment, she looked Syaoran right in his face, "So what have you been doing since I've seen you last?"

Lii shrugged his shoulders. "Nothing impressive," he said, "I moved back to Hong Kong with my family to do more training and studying." He he put down his teacup, and continued uninterested, "I came back here because I want to go to the university."

"Oh? What do you want to do with an education?"

Tomoyo observed a light blush grace his cheeks. "I want to become a teacher... Well, more like a professor. "

She smiled, but kept her laughter on the inside. She never took Lii to be a people person. Especially a person that stands, let alone teaches university students.

Lii scoffed. Apparantly, her laughter was not well kept on her insides. "So what have you been doing since we last saw each other? What are you, some bigtime Hollywood director? Or a singer? Huh?" Tomoyo could tell that her laughter at his humble aspirations offended him.

"Well, I went to Canada."

Syaoran's eyes nearly popped out of his head. With no ill intentions, he asked, "Why would you want to live in such a frozen wasteland...?"

This time, Tomoyo gave no resistance to her instincts to laugh her head off. She held her sides, and tried her hardest to suck in whatever breath was possible for her to take while she practically fell out of her decorated garden chair. "What a dumbass!" she said in English. Syaoran frowned, so she guessed that although he could not speak English, he caught that she had just insulted him. She replaced herself in her seat in an attempt to regain her gracefulness. Back in Japanese, she told him, "Canada is not all frozen wasteland... well, much. In fact, its weather is much like northern Japan. For instance, summer is still really hot, and stuff."

Lii looked down at his no-doubt gourmet cake and specialty tea. He felt a little foolish, so he decided to change the subject. "So have you seen Sakura yet since you've been here?"

Tomoyo was taken a little aback by his question. "Uhm, no. I only just got here a couple of hours ago." She was a little confused. Maybe... "Lii, are you and Sakura not together anymore?"

He shurgged. "Of course not. I couldn't stay with her. I went back to Hong Kong."

At that moment, Tomoyo lost it. It was like somebody had been bending a twig, and as soon as the syllable "not" came out of Syaoran's mouth, she was no longer the calm, cool, collect Tomoyo she had been for the past few years. She couldn't believe it. After all the time she spent agonizing over the fact she would never be the one for Sakura, because Lii was... Had she wasted all of those years wodering what it would have been like? And what about Sakura's feelings? How could he just leave her for such selsish reasons? She set down her china cup rather forcibly, "What the hell do you mean?"

Lii's eyes widened. He looked like a deer in the headlights while he fumbled with his own cup. He stumbled over words, "Well... uh... I was uh... Huh?" The brown haired young man looked into his friend's eyes with confusion, and just waited to for her to either explain her anger, or to just to go ahead and punish him.

Tomoyo attempted to keep her cool. She grabbed onto her skirt and squeezed its poor stitches in her finely manicured hands. "You left her? For Hong Kong?" She looked down at her knees, and noticed that her mother's screeching had gone down a tone to an aggravated grumble. "How could you do that to her? She... she..." Tomoyo forced herself to look him straight in the eye, "She loved you!"

"Don't you think I knew that?!" It was Tomoyo's turn to be stunned. She sat back in her own seat, and waited for him to speak again. Syaoran had gotten over his own shock, and the look on his face told the stylish woman across from him that he was genuinely angry. "I loved her too. For a long time. _You_ were the one who broke her heart."

"What are you talking about?"

Lii looked down at his gourmet piece of cake, and his tea. "When you left so suddenly, Sakura was heartbroken and thought that everything was all her fault. She didn't know it, but she was barely able to work out her feelings on her own, and soon she started relying on other people like her dad, and brother, and me. We all tried to help her to stand up on her own, but she just got upset and gave up. I couldn't deal with it." Their eyes met once more, both of them starting to fill with tears. "So I left. Just like you did."

Tomoyo was the first to look away as her mother came back to the table. "Sorry, kids. I didn't mean for that to happen." she looked between the two of them. "What's the matter."

"Nothing. I've got to get going." Lii rose from the table, and began to walk out. "Sorry about not finishing the cake. It was delicious." He flashed a smile towards Sonomi, and she waved goodbye to him.

Sonomi sat down next to her daughter. She took a long look at Tomoyo as she continued to play with her food. She looked back up at her mother when she felt her mom's fingers slide through her hair. "What happened, Sweetie?"

Tomoyo looked at Sonomi with misty eyes. "You know how I left for university in Canada right after high school, Mom?"

Ms. Daidouji nodded her head slightly.

"Well..." She sighed deeply. "I didn't really tell any of my friends. Not even Sakura." She let her forhead rest on her hands, and her elbow rest onto the table as she let tears slip down her face and right into her moist-enough cake.

"I know that," Sonomi's own eyes teared at the sight of her strong daughter in a crumbled state, "unrequited love... it's agony."

_"That's it, Sakura-chan!" she circled her best friend in her new costume to completely capture the beauty from every angle. "You're so pretty."_

_"Ahh, thanks, Tomoyo-chan." The young girl pointed to the large bow behind her. "But did you have to make it so extravagant? I'm ou to capture cards anyway, who will see me?" _

_She only giggled, and continues to film her friend. "I will." With her point made, she shut off the camcorder to save battery for the capturing scene._

_The girl in the costume's face softened. "I really don't know what I'd do without you around," she said._


	4. Chapter 4

Beginnings

Thanks to everybody who reviewed! Your comments are much helpful and appreciated. I really hope you like this chapter. So let me know what you think!

Disclaimer: I don't own Cardcaptor Sakura... Do we even have to do these disclaimers anymore?

Tomoyo took in a deep breath and sighed it out. She felt as if her knees were going to collapse under her, for she was standing right in front of the Kinomoto's residence, which on the outside seemed completely unchanged, except that a few things were repainted like the door, and the fence. Being in front of this door reminded the woman of all the the times with Sakura as a child when she would come over for picnics, or for dinner, or to study, or sometimes just to kick back and have fun at a sleepover. It made her sad to think that she had corrupted such an innocent girl.

To be on the safe side, Tomoyo listened in to the door first to make sure she wasn't here at a bad time. That wasn't true. She was looking for an excuse not to do this. She listened anyway, and her eyes nearly popped out of her head of surprise from what she had heard. What Tomoyo was listnening to on the other side of the door was her very own voice from her childhood. She listened longer and closer. She felt herself feeling the beat and following along with the words, and then she caught herself thinking about how good of a singer she had been back then.

Suddenly the voice was silenced, and Tomoyo started to panic. In case she had been caught leaning against their front door like a maniac, she quickly rang the doorbell without bracing herself first for the painful impact that would follow.

"Konnichiwa, Onii-" Sakura half-greeted cheerfully to whom she thought was her brother. When she swung the door open to reveal the long lost best friend she had been painfully grieving for years, she was a little surprised. Sakura dropped the pot she was holding right on top of Tomoyo's high-heeled and well groomed right foot. The young costume designer yelled out in pain, and knelt down to clutch her injured- and now wet- foot.

Sakura was still gripping the door knob with enough force to strangle a chicken, but all she could do was stand there and look at Tomoyo. She could not believe her eyes, and even though she was so different now, Sakura recognized her perfect mouth, her observing deep eyes, and the smooth pale skin that glowed. The only part of her body Sakura was able to move after about ten seconds was her face, and her neck, mostly just to stare down at the young woman holding her foot in pain while she told herself that it was not really her, that it was the Avon Lady or something. Whatever an Avon Lady was...

Did she say something? "Wha?"

"I asked if I could have some ice," Tomoyo requested quietly.

Without reply, Sakura ran back into the house and grabbed some ice from the freezer and bundled them up in a cloth and returned to her front door, where Tomoyo was hopping on one foot and was rather unstable. Again, without saying even a word, Sakura handed the ice to her friend, picked her up in her arms, and placed her down onto the couch, where she gently placed Tomoyo's pained foot onto the table and then booked it for the kitchen where she pretended to be attending to something.

Tomoyo thanked her lucky stars that Sakura was not looking at her face, otherwise she would have been witness to all the colours of a tomato coming from the blood rushing to her face. Tomoyo was amazed. She couldn't believe how easily Sakura had picked her up just then, and how elegantly she had set her down. 'No!' Tomoyo thought, 'I cannot fall in love with her again. But then... How do you not fall in love with somebody whom you're already in love with...?'

Sakura's face practically glowed red from embarasment. She couldn't believe she just touched Tomoyo like that so casually after not seeing her for so many years. For now, she was ignoring the fact that she had also injured her, and not even said hello when she had first seen her. She settled her face into the palms of her hands, and breathed slowly and deeply. During her attempt to calm herself down, she noticed a disturbance in an aura. But not of her own, or Tomoyo's.

The cards.

She looked to her left, and stared at the three cards laying on the counter next to her. She picked them up in her hands, and looked at them puzzlingly, but she sensed a longing. She had a good idea what for. "Release," Sakura commanded quietly. Out from the first card came a lovely petite woman with long flowing hair. She had a posture and attitude that said she was a dignified and elegant person, which most definitely identified her as the Song Card. The second was also a woman who wore a very extravagant dress, with corkscrew pigtails was the Flower Card. The last was what looked like a young lady from an older era, who was holding a mirror in front of her. As soon as the three were released, they went into the direction of their longing, which was into the living room where Tomoyo sat with her injured foot.

Tomoyo did not expect magical beings to appear before her, so she started her sentence with, "Sakura, I- Eep!" She nearly had a heart attack right on that couch with her foot elevated still. She felt that somebody had forcefully pushed her backwards so she sank into the back of the couch. The familiar three cards gathered around her and smiled at her, and touched her. The song card offered a choral chord using only it's own voice, the flower card offered her a bouquet of cherry blossom flowers, and the mirror card was so excited, it changed forms of everybody it knew from Tomoyo's form, to Kero's form. So instead of disappointing the cards that were obviously excited to see her, she disregarded her discomfort and awkward feeling and smiled at them, touched their hands, and the flower card even picked her up to dance with her, all the while with a beaming smile on her face.

Sakura stood in the doorway and watched the scene with a sad feeling. She didn't want to admit it, but she was sort of jealous that the cards would still love Tomoyo after she had tossed Sakura aside so easily.

Sakura shook the angry and betrayed feelings out of her head. No matter what Tomoyo had done, she was still her best friend, and she was happy to see her. Sakura laughed and went over to the couch to join the party that had started there. She tapped the Flower Card in the shoulder, and was ignored. Sakura sighed irritably. Only after the third time of clapping her hand on her back did she receive any notice. "May I cut in?" she asked with an eyebrow raised.

The card hung her head, and placed Tomoyo back down on the couch. Sakura inspected Tomoyo's foot. "Can you move your toe?" Sakura inquired. In response Tomoyo wiggled her toe around and extended it and curled it. With a laugh, Sakura told her, "well, it's good I didn't cripple you. Sorry about that."

Tomoyo shook her head and smiled at her old friend. "It's fine." She added, "But you can make it up to me by making me dinner."

Sakura looked at her dumbfounded. She never expected to see such a mischievous look coming from her charming friend's face. Sakura had a thought that maybe Tomoyo had been through her own mishaps while she was away. "Okay," she said, "But my father is gone for tonight so it will just be you and I." She then smiled her famous too sweet adorable smile.

About an hour later they managed to make dinner and dessert without injuring anybody else any further. Parts of it were awkward, but some times it just felt like they were twelve again making supper for the Kinomoto family, and a little extra for Kero. Tomoyo laughed that the household still used an old wooden handcrafted spatula which Syaoran had made for Sakura in 6th grade. Sakura teared up at certain thoughts, like seeing Tomoyo sit and stir the noodles with her old apron on humming a familiar song. More than anything, Sakura wanted to reach out and touch Tomoyo. She wanted to hug her, or carress her face, and tell her how much she had missed her and waited so longing for her return. However, Sakura stayed quiet, for she was certain that Tomoyo did not return her feelings, and she would end up rejected again.

The two girls sat at the table and ate their spaghetti. They made really small talk. Talk so small it was nearly non-existant. Tomoyo asked about how the weather had been, and Sakura mostly avoided talking about her own life. That is, until Tomoyo came right out and asked. "Sakura, I met up with Lii yesterday, and he told me that he left on bad terms. I came over to see how you were doing, and I want to know. How are you doing?"

'Like you really care,' the other girl thought horribly. "I'm alright I suppose," she looked down at her food, and decided to be busy twirling her spaghetti, "I'm just finding it hard to stand on my own, I guess."

Tomoyo heard about it, but she was supremely shocked to see Sakura be so unmotivated and indifferent about anything before. She had always been cheery, and sometimes overwhelming with passion and a "get things done" mentality.

The subject was obviously delicate, so she stayed away for the time being. She still loved Sakura, so she could not just abandon her when she so obviously needed a friend. "Well, is there a guy?"

Sakura noticed the mischievious smirk on Tomoyo's face again. This time it excited her rather than surprised her. And then she was surprised because he wasn't surprised by it. She laughed a little too loud, "Not at the moment. How about you?"

"I havn't been seeing any guys either."

Sakura's could feel her face warming, and she willed her blood to stay away from her cheeks. She could feel herself get more and more excited the more the conversation turned this way. For once, she was wondered what Tomoyo's sex life had been like while she had been wherever she had been. She imagined Tomoyo having fantastic sex, prowling bars and playing men like musical instruments. Her friend most certainly had the image to pull of a sexy lifestyle like that. She silently prayed that Tomoyo was hitting on her and not just making conversation.

"So if we're here," she paused form emphasis, "all alone... Where is Kero and your dad?" Tomoyo tried, but she could not stop herself from hitting on her old friend. Of course she was far from glamorous at this point, seeing she still lived with her father, had no job as far as she knew, and was not as shiny and new looking as back then. But she could not stop herself from still wanting her.

Sakura gulped, "Dad's doing work at the university, and Kero is out with Yukito because he's competing in a archery competition. That's what Yukito does, he competes because you really good, I mean you must remember. Kero goes with him sometimes to get out of the house, and those two like to spend time together for whatever reason..."

Tomoyo could feel herself about to make a move, but she stopped before she could go any further, no matter how cute it was that Sakura was rambling nervously. She finished off her last bite of her scrumptious food, chugged her glass of water, and announced that she was leaving to go home to do some things. Sakura nodded, and agreed that she still had some "things" to do.

"Thanks for the meal. Bai, Sakura-chan."

The cute brunette reached out and grabbed Tomoyo's hand before she could escape fully from the house. At that moment in time where they touched Sakura was just as surprised and nervous as Tomoyo was when she reached her hand out. "Umm..." Her face burned, "Will you come see me again? Or we could go out soon?"

"Yeah," said Tomoyo awkwardly. "I'll come by tomorrow, actually." Both nodded at each other and had an understanding. Tomoyo then took her leave.

_Sakura woke up later that night, panting. All of a sudden her clothes were tight and contricting, and she just had to take them off. She knew everybody was out of the house. She called the ever so familiar number. Within minutes, she answered the door wearing nearly nothing but a low white silk robe, revealing the slope of her inviting breasts._

_The two could no longer wait for introductions and politeness, as they clung to each other fiercely as their lips crashed into one anothers. Sakura could feel the heat of the others body, and pressed even closer, as she ran her fingers through long soft hair._

_Hands wandered and removed clothing all before they could even make it up the first few steps of the stairs. Realizing they were not going to make it, Sakura felt herself being picked up, and pushed onto the couch almost violently. Another weight followed the push as somebody climbed on top of her. They kissed each other passionately once more as they fumbled to remove the rest of their clothing._

_They did not even have time to think that this was it, or what they were even doing right then. They just knew that they had to. Whether it was that they had needs, or because of hidden love, or even boredom. It was right._

_Sakura gasped and moaned thinking she had never been touched in such a way before in her entire life. She cried out passionately into the dark room, and then finally noticed her face._

Sakura woke up gasping for breath, and threw the blanket off from her. She turned on the lights and paced her room.

"...Fuck..."

Well that was different. Even though my fic is rated M, this is the first thing that even remotely reserved the right to it rating. PLEASE reveiw and tell me what you thought about this chapter. You liked it? You didn't? Thanks for reading!


	5. Chapter 5

How about that? I updated! I've been busy, but I won't apologize, because I warned you! Anyway. I hope you enjoy this chapter. Tell me what you think be it a nice, "great job! I can't wait to see what happens" or a, "your writing could use some work" or a, "you deserve to have a rubber chicken shoved through your head for this drivel you've put out to the public eye." Thanks for reading!

Beginnings

Tomoyo awoke the next morning feeling like she was just coming to the surface of a pond where she'd lived under the water for so long. She opened her eyes, and suddenly, she felt she had just hit play on a movie that has been paused for too long. She filled her own lungs with all the air she could take in, just to make sure she was awake, and not asleep. As she undressed herself, she went to the shower to wash away the dirt and grime on her body, and she felt refreshed.

Not feeling any rush, she took her time in the shower, making sure to rub every inch of her scalp with the lush lavander scent of the shampoo and conditioner that lived on the shower shelf. While putting down the bottles, Tomoyo noticed her own body. She noticed her own curves, smooth skin, and long legs. She couldn't help but to touch her body. She felt like crying out, screaming or singing at the top of her lungs for no reason. Everything felt so new to her. So _good._ Everything about that morning seemed to be needing to be prodded and groped, until something else captured the attention of a very dreamy Tomoyo. Sonomi seemed to notice, but did nothing but smile and chuckle lightly, happy for her daughter.

She spent about three hours staring in the mirror washing off and putting her makeup back on, brushing her hair, and making sure that she looked alright clothing-wise. Her mom came in about five times to tell her to get over herself, until finally, Sonomi shooed her out of the bathroom, and made her do something to take her mind off her date. With a still dreamy smile on her face, Tomoyo sewed Sonomi's damaged blouses and skirts, often too distracted, she overdid it and ended up sewing an arm to a collar.

Sonomi hung her head. "What do I do with that girl?"

After she was finally satisfied with how she looked, she noticed that it was still only twelve in the afternoon. At that moment when her face fixated on on the clock's face, everything about Tomoyo slumped. Her mood, her posture, even her hair. She moaned and groaned, and practically stared at the clock for three hours or what seemed like hours to to her. She noticed her mother walking by chuckling at her, to which Tomoyo shook her fist half-heartedly with the threat of vengeance.

After some time, Sonomi came into Tomoyo's room with a wooden tray full of lunch goodies. To perk Tomoyo's mood, mom added some of her famous octopus sausages on the side of lunch to stare happily in the face of the slug-like young woman. They were eaten slowly, and while staring at the food, Tomoyo had an idea, so she made herself busy with planning to where and when to take Sakura out to dinner. Again, she seemed to be surrounded by a pink and flowery aura as she bounded about the house looking for pamphlets and looking into the internet to see where she might take Sakura. She took into account the places where she thought that Sakura's brother might be working, or where Sakura would most enjoy the atmosphere. She was sure she would be very uncomfortable at a really fancy restaurant. In the end, she picked out a new place that was like an indoor park, but offered a a diner inside of it. It was perfect, so they would be able to actually talk and catch up. Plus, Tomoyo was still anxious to know how Sakura was feeling since she had been so lonely.

Tomoyo nearly jumped out of her shoes when the phone rang, for she was in a deep thought about a fantasy involving garter belts and silken whips. She walked over to the loud inanimate object rather uncomfortably and lifted the receiver. "Daidouji residence," she greeted to the unknown.

"Tomoyo?" A smile spread across her face at the sound of the melodious voice on the other end of the telephone.

"Hi, Sakura."

"Um..." she sounded a little nervous about speaking. This made Tomoyo nervous. She wondered if she was canceling the date on her. With that in mind, she got ahead of herself and thought that she might as well just go back to Canada and end this silly trip down Painful Memory Lane. "I just wanted to know what time-"

Ecstatic at the thought that Sakura was still interested, Tomoyo interrupted her with a, " Five o-clock! I hope you don't mind, but I already planned this out."

"No, not at all." she could practically feel Sakura blush through the phone. It made her smile. "What should I wear?"

Tomoyo thought about it. Then she realized that she wanted to know what kind of clothes to wear and that she wasn't talking about what outfit she should really be wearing. "Oh. Just some warm clothes will probably be fine. We're not going anywhere fancy."

A very girlish giggle reached Tomoyo's ears through the phone, which made her release a small and girlish giggle of her own. Tomoyo didn't want to dwell since they would talk later, so they said their goodbyes and agreed to see each other at five o'clock that very day.

After that, Tomoyo was more relaxed, and she slithered around the house, rather than bounded, and she proceeded to keep herself busy while she waited to leave to pick up the cute woman.

Sakura's heart thumped at a constant rate inside her chest, trying desperately to escape from the cage that was its ribs. Sakura willed her heart to be calm and wait. Sakura herself could hardly contain her joy. She, too, bounded about the house getting ready, and doing house chores to keep herself busy, while her brother and father watched with fascination and amusment. She was too excited to tell them yet about their date, because she was sure that they wouldn't take it very well, since Tomoyo had been the first stepping stone into the mess that Sakura had gotten herself into then.

She stared at the clock sitting on her dresser and telekenetically told it to go faster. The clock refused with a blank face and its steady ticking second hand. She could have sworn it had even slowed down just to spite her. "Hmph," she huffed and threw the clock into a drawer in her desk.

"Ouch!" cried a small inhabitant probably previously sleeping in the drawer she had thrown the clock into.

"Oh," she said, as she retrieved the disobedient clock, "Sorry, Kero. I didn't know you were there." She smirked, "And to think that I didn't bring you any of those strawberry pancakes from this morning."

Keroberos immediately flew out of his hiding place when he heard the lovely sound of a tasty food. He searched the room in disbelief that he didn't get any pancakes. Under the bed, inside the lampshade, the drawers, under the cards... They were nowhere to be found. Meanwhile, Sakura laughed her ass off. After a double check between all the sheets, he found himself sorely disappointed with his results. No strawberry pancakes. Anywhere. He slouchedly floated to his drawer and closed it to no doubt spend the rest of his very sad day in solitude.

After Sakura was thoroughly amused by the event, she pulled him out by the scruff of his neck. He struggled and demanded to be put down complaining about not being a cat you can drag around anywhere. Sakura told him gently, "Of course I saved you some, you bonehead." Kero's eyes bulged with happy tears as the looked deep into Sakura's eyes with obvious gratitude. "I even made sure there was whipped cream left for you nasty sugar habit. You're lucky that you're a magical beast. Otherwise, you would be one fat cat." For that comment, Sakura received a prominent raspberry.

Tomoyo stood outside the Kinomoto residence, trying to catch her beath. She took the moment to make sure everything was in check. She held up her pocket mirror to her face to make sure that her make-up was not overdone. She checked her outfit which consisted of a pair of denim skinny jeans with black flats; she did not want to appear too much taller than her date. She was a woman after all. She made sure her green blouse was tucked in and her brown cashmere cardigan pulled tightly around her. She had, after all, advised that Sakura wear something warm.

She did not want to make the same mistake of not preparing herself for impact, so she knocked on the door instead of ringing the bell, and stepped a polite distance away from the door. She hear loud thunderous thumping like the feet of a large man. When the door was finally opened, she found herself staring into the cold face of Sakura's brother Touya. He didn't look pleased. She quickly bowed to him as it was, according to Japanese custom, polite. He only said, "I knew something was up."

Want the dirty date details? Tune in next time for katlity's wonderful and slightly late updates!


	6. Chapter 6

Beginning

Chapter 6

Hello! And welcome to chapter 6 of the Cardcaptor Sakura Fanfic, Beginnings! I want to say thank you to the reviewers, people who put my on their alerts list, and youtube for their fanfastic amvs that inspire me to write cheesy romances. Awww... Please let me know how I did this chapter. I tried things a little differently, so I want feedback on how it was. Bad, good, or not different at all anyway. Thanks. See you.

She did not want to make the same mistake of not preparing herself for impact, so she knocked on the door instead of ringing the bell, and stepped a polite distance away from the door. She hear loud thunderous thumping like the feet of a large man. When the door was finally opened, she found herself staring into the cold face of Sakura's brother Touya. He didn't look pleased. She quickly bowed to him as it was, according to Japanese custom, polite. He only said, "I knew something was up."

With her face a somewhat tomato red, Tomoyo laughed nervously and awkwardly at Touya's statement. Tomoyo found herself locked into a staring contest of death with her crush's brother, and didn't know what to do. She obviously couldn't let him win, otherwise, he would think she was a coward for not wanting to face him, but she obviously couldn't let herself win because he would think she was too full of herself and wouldn't like her. So instead of trying to turn the facedown into a battle, she merely smiled and asked, "Is Sakura here? I'm here to take her out."

Touya opened the door fully in response, but seemingly made no effort to retrieve his little sister from wherever she was. Instead, he disappeared into a different part of the house. Tomoyo had hope that the date would go on, so she closed the door behind her and waited there for Sakura to come out, which she eventually would. Opening her clutch purse, Tomoyo fished for a piece of gum, just to make herself look busy, while she double checked her makeup again and made sure she had no lipstick on her teeth and things of the like. And since she had the opportunity, she looked around at the hallway. She noticed three pictures hanging in a vertical line on the wall in a very traditional fashion of all of the members of the household's graduation pictures. Looking at the family's faces up close, it was almost comical how similar in looks they all were, but how different they were at the same time. She could trace the chins and eyebrows of every one of them and they would match up. The eyes would all fit together, and even the shape of the face. The only difference was that Sakura took a little more after her mother in the department of skin colour and hair than her father.

"Onii-chaaaaan!" came a screeching whine from upstairs. Soon, a very disgruntled Sakura rumbled down the stairs like a rhino, and stomped in the direction Tomoyo had seen Touya go earlier. What took her by surprise was the fact that Sakura was not entirely dressed. She seemed to be missing an important part of everyday clothing, which Tomoyo recognized as bottoms. She snuck in a glimpse anyway, figuring it was worth the trouble, and it was once she caught the lacy black panties clinging to a tight bottom. Tomoyo heard another thump of finality and then another screech, "You said you would do the laundry today! Now I don't have any nice pants to wear!"

"Oh?" inquired her older brother, "And for what might you need nice pants? A date, perhaps?"

Tomoyo could just picture Sakura's stance at this point. She probably puffed out her chest, put her nose up in the air, and declared, "Yes I do," she said quite proudly, "but it's none of your business!"

Touya snorted, "Well, what do you want me to do about it now, brat? Just put something else on."

Sakura let out a strangled sigh that sounded mostly like a hiss, and then some thunderous stomps coming Tomoyo's way. She suddenly felt the need to hide, so that she didn't let on she had heard Sakura's childish outburst. Too late, she was already coming. And now she was turning her head in Tomoyo's direction! Now there was no escaping as thei gazes locked, and Sakura's face practically melted into a pool of red. Too embarrased to say anything, Sakura merely held up a finger in front of her to indicate that she would only be "one more second." Tomoyo once again heard graceful footfalls instead of the monstrous stomping.

About a minute passed by and Tomoyo continued to make herself busy with looking at pictures, and wondering about how sakura was doing, and what she was actually planning to wear. Soon, Sakura had come down the stairs once more, this time she was fully clothed, and looked exactly the picture of cute and beautiful at the same time that Tomoyo had always pictured her. She wore long black stockings under a knee length orange skirt, and white t shirt, and while she hurries down the steps again, she put on a red woolen coat. Her cheeks still blossomed with a beautiful pink hue, as she grabbed a scraf out of the closet next to where Tomoyo was standing. Her brother leaned up against the wall at the end of the hallway casually looking at the two of them as the both left in awkward silence.

Once out of the house, and a safe ways from listening distance, Sakura sighed with relief and turned to Tomoyo with a still hot face. "I'm sorry about that. I was too caught up today to bother telling my family was going out with you today," she informed her apologetically.

Tomoyo merely chuckled. She hadn't expected any less from this strange adventure home. She told Sakura that. They both laughed together, which washed away the awkwardness of the evening, hopefully, for good. "Is your brother still living there?" Tomoyo asked. She thought it was weird for the ever independent Touya to be at his father's house on a Friday night.

Sakura shrugged. "He comes over every once in a while to make sure that we're okay for groceries and that we're not too behind on the laundry, and that Dad makes time to eat, and that I don't burn down the house," she said with disdain. "I don't think it's really necessary. He has his own life to take care of too, you know? He lives with Yukito and Yue, and it's hard enought to deal with those two."

Tomoyo blinked, and had to stop and think about it for a second, "You're brother knows about Yue? Does he know about the cards, too?"

"Of course he does," she exclaimed, "We both know he knew all along. It was just a matter of time before he caught me in the act." She sighed, "At least he never mentions it to me, or asks me for any favors or anything." Tomoyo shrugged, she thought it was probably okay. Her brother was a trustworthy guy.

On their way towards the park, they chatted about what they'd been doing since they hadn't been in each other's lives. Sakura talked about her home life, and what she did day to day like doing chores, and making food for her dad and herself. She still kept in touch with most of her friends from the neighborhood, even though many had moved away, and that she still kept a good relationship with all of the cards. Tomoyo talked about what her life had been like without the magic and her old videos. She told Sakura about her life as a costume designer, and about her friend Brigitt. However, she left out her love life. She didn't want Sakura to know about the rather promiscuous side of her life.

"Ah!" Tomoyo heard Sakura cry from next to her.

Worried about what might have surprised the young woman, she turned all around to look at what was going on, but found her eyes resting on a booth in town. It had tons of little red rolled up pieces of paper hanging from its cieling, and hanging off of the back walls. Golden tassles hung from the ends of the little papers. To Tomoyo's surprise, she found herself being dragged along by her hand towards the mysterious kiosk. Upon reaching said booth, Sakura stood happily in front of it while Tomoyo stood dazed, staring at the hand that Sakura still held.

"Good evening, Sakura-Chan! I was wondering when you would show up!" exclaimed a balding man in old monk's robes that fit him very loosely, but he looked friendly enough smiling at both of them with squinty eyes. "Care for a charm?" He said gesturing widely to all of his merchandise.

With her other hand, Sakura held up he middle and index finder to the man, "Two, actually," she said, "One for April 1st, and one for September 3rd, please." The man nodded and searched through a few boxes under the table in his booth. In the end, he pulled out two charmsand laid them on the table, each of them looking like the rest of the ones that hung up, red with gold tassels.

Sakura took the two off of the table, and placed oe into Tomoyo's hand. She told her, "You sleep with these under your pillow. When you wake up and the paper is uncreased, the prediction on the inside will come true." Tomoyo took the piece of paper carefully, and examined it. She wondered what it would tell her, and she shook her head. She had to remind herself that she was in the real world, and that all of these charms were total bullshit. But then again... Sakura was magical herself with her cards. Tomoyo placed the paper in her purse.

Sakura and Tomoyo thanked the man, and they left back on the trail to dinner for the night. They once again chatted about life, and then they finally reached the place after a good walk. The building was about two stories high and had many windows with which to see through and look at the plants, and the indoor park. From outside, Tomoyo spotted the restaurant. She turned to Sakura before entering, and asked, "Would you like to eat or look around first?" Sakura's stomach answered for her when in gave an enormous growl. This only made Tomoyo's knees give out because of such enormous laughter that followed, but Sakura just stood there embarrased. After Tomoyo's giggle fit, it was her turn to lead Sakura inside.

Tomoyo could hear Sakura gasp in amazement and wonder at the beautiful sights of the plants and scenery of the place. Tomoyo had to admit that it was quite a bit more charming than anything she had seen so far in Canada other than real wildlife. She just hoped the food was just as enjoyable.

To Tomoyo's surprise they made it through the dinner without interruptions from somebody that they knew, but there were no guarentees for the rest of the night, so she would keep a lookout and prepare to run if she had to face anymore of her childhood friends. About an hour passed again before they stopped at a nearby pond on the second level to nibble on ice creamand sit on a bench and watch the duck's confusion as the roamed about. They looked like they knew they were home, but it somehow didn't feel right. Tomoyo felt for them.

For the sake of Tomoyo's curiousity, she had to ask Sakura, "Sakura, what happened after I left? I met up with Lii, and she told me some things..." she paused and then turned to look at Sakura who was staring her right in the face with some ice cream on her nose with a blank face. "Sorry," Tomoyo looked away. "You don't need to answer."

Sakura sighed, "I'm sorry Tomoyo... After you left, things just started to fall apart with Syaoran and I. I couldn't stand on my own, and I felt so lonely. After a long time, I guess people just gave up on me and didn't expect anything out of me anymore." Again, she looked Tomoyo right in the eyes, "I don't want you to get involved with me without knowing that I am a weak person. I cannot and will probably never stand on my own." Tomoyo could see from Sakura's eyes that she was very much trying to put up a strong front to tell her this, but she could see that the coned ice cream in her hand was wobbling slightly.

A large pang of guilt hit Tomoyo in her soft place, and she knew all at once that Sakura's state was really all of her fault. Thinking back on how things used to be, she pictured Sakura as the most strong person she knew. A girl who overcame her fears of ghosts, of losing herself and her friends. Never once had she thought about Sakura's feelings when she decided to leave her forever. She tried to hise her misty eyes, but she could not, so instead she put her hand on Sakura's knee and said without looking in her face, "I'm so sorry."

Without hesitation, Sakura dropped her ice cream cone and held Tomoyo with the strength she had earlier carried her into the house with. She gripped her with the hands that had held her hand only just an hour before, and burried her face into Tomoyo's cardigan with which she had only just shown her the real strength hidden within her. Tomoyo held her too, and they both stayed like that, until the ducks started to quack, and broke the silence between them. Without speaking, they knew they were both done in the indoor park and they started to walk home. Never once again did they look at each other, but wet sniffling coudl be heard from the both of them as they walked home hand in hand.

Once they had reached Sakura's doorstep, they stood out in front of the door and turned to look at each other finally. Tomoyo drew in a breath and prepared to say goodnight, but was interrupted by a blocking which was Sakura's lips on her own. Tomoyo didn't hesitate to close her eyes and enjoy the moment of being lost in the first pure innocent kiss she had ever recieved, much less given out. Again, they embraced each other after their kiss with eyes still wet, and then Sakura turned around to go into her house, but before she did, she turned to Tomoyo and said, "Don't forget to put your charm under your pillow."

The next morning found Tomoyo lying nude in her own bed staring out the window at the sun as she dared herself to look under her pillow at the little charm she had obtained the night before. With he fingers to her lips, she wondered how that kiss ever even happened. It was like it was too good to be true, but she didn't want to go find out because she would rather just keep dreaming.

Forgetting her insecurity, she slowly reached under her pillow, and found the rolled piece of paper with no crease. The held it above her head and unrolled it.

_True love is close at hand_

As if she didn't already know.


	7. Chapter 7

Beginnings

"Ha..." Sakura's head reeled back as she scrunched her eyes and opened her mouth, "CHOO!" She hung her head and reached around her bed, patting every surface trying to feel around for the sharp corners of the tissue box to wipe the dripping snot form her face, lest she be called once more the dreaded nickname. "The Snot Walrus".

She heard a knock at her door and quickly looked up to make sure they had not come in, but in process managed to plaster the nose-drool to her face which prompted a large groan, and then a very cranky sounding, "Just a sec." She Looked to find the box, wiped her nose, and then tossed the three drenched sheets of tissue into the wastebasket. "Come in," she called to the person on the other side of the door, as she made herself look presentable by calming her hair, wiping her eyes, and untwisting her bedclothes.

Her older brother peeked only his head into the room and took a look around her messy bedroom and shook his head. "Helpless," Touya said under his breath, "Somebody is here to see you." To normal people, the sentence sounded like, "Somebody is here to see you," but to Sakura it sounded like, "If you so much as detect a wrong look at you, all you have to do is scream and I will come and beat the shit out of them."

Sakura merely smiled lovingly at her brother and said a weak, "thank you." Touya then stepped aside and another hand came into the door, and then a face. Sakura pretended to make herself busy with making her nightstand clean of snotrags, just to avoid eye contact. "Yes?" she asked coldly.

Lii stepped into the room, his socks barely making any sound on the floor. Out of the corner of his eye – although he chose to ignore it – a little yellow head sticking out of Sakura's desk drawer giving him the stink eye. After all, he had only come to her house to make amends. Hopefully. He looked right at her daringly as he awkwardly said, "I heard you were sick, so I brought you these."

Sakura had to bite her lip to keep from letting out an accidental snort of of bitterness. She immediately covered her mouth in apology, but he had already withdrawn the flowers. "Sorry," he said, "I just wanted to come by and give you a little pick up, but I'm sorry I bothered you." He turned around to leave with his head held low, and his face seemed to hold some guilt and embarrasment. She scrambled to get out of her bed and stop him, but she did not know her own weakness, for she fell out of the bed. THUNK! Right onto the floor, which sent her into a violent coughing fit in the most awkward and painful position to possibly have a coughing fit in. Lii disregarded any further embarrasment and stepped forward into her room quickly to help her up to her bed again. With one arm around his shoulders he lifted Sakura easily onto her bed again through the trembles in her body because of the coughing.

Without hesitation he reached to her nightstand and grabbed a glass of water and handed to her for her to drink once the coughing had gone away. In a matter of moments he had also grabbed a tissue, an emergency inhaler, and had a cough drop in his hand ready for when her fitwent away. When it had, she decided to take all that he had offered to her. Even the flowers. Just for that, she let him stay with her until he was satisfied.

"So why are you sick anyway?" Syaoran inquired, "Your immune system is usually strong as an ox." He had since grabbed a chair an sat by her bed to keep her some company.

Sakura shrugged her shoulders as if to shrug off the question, but not necessarily to answer it. Instead she changed the subject. "How have your studies been going? I haven't heard from you or even about you in a long time."

Lii shrugged his shoulders as well. "I went to Hong Kong and -laugh as you may – I figured out that I want to become a teacher."

Sakura did not laugh, but for the first time in ages, she had felt a connection with her old lover. She never expected he would want to do anything involving people, and especially the shaping of young minds! She imagined him up on a platform in front of a university class just like her father, and he would teach the young people about anything and everything. He would wave his teaching pointer, and sing with the voice of learning...

"Sakura?" Shaoran inquired to her, "Are you alright? You look a little dazed."

Sakura snapped out of her fantasy. "Oh, yeah..." she said, "I'm alright, I guess I was just being a little delusional. Maybe I'm more sick than I thought." She gave him a weak weary smile and he felt a little guilty again. Lii left the room for about a minute and later came back with a vase with water and the previous flowers, and set them on her desk.

Lii looked her right into her eyes again to capture her entire attention, "I know that it would be easier for you just to conjure flowers out of mid air with you powers, but I thought they might smell sweeter coming from a friend." With his last sentimental sentence, he gave a small kiss on her forehead and a wish of good luck for her with a soft smile.

Sakura could hardly contain her blush when he had left and the sensation of his kiss was still on her forehead. The skin tingled with expectation for more, but Sakura willed it away and told it softly and sarcastically, "Like that would ever happen anyway. 'Friend' he says. Pfft..." She frowned and reminded herself of all the pain and tears the boy had ever caused her and decided she was right to be mean to him the first time, and then she bitterly snatched a box to tissues and promptly began using half the box to clear her nose of snot. Not long after Toya came upstairs with a handful of medicine and another hand full of a glass of water which Sakura very thankfully took and shortly fell asleep.

Sakura later woke up dazed and miserable. However long she had slept had not been enough for she still felt groggy and weary of her sickness. She felt more misery as she felt both a sneeze and a cough coming on at the same time ans reached as quickly as she could for a tissue to prepare for the oncoming nosebleed.

Tomoyo flipped through a Japanese fashion magazine with delight, as the fashion in Japan was more her style than the fashion had been in Canada where beauty is more subtle than bright floral prints and frills and sexy lace. Her delightful magazine viewing was interrupted at the sound of rustling behind her and then a strange loud noise somewhere between a cough and a sneeze. When she turned around, she witnessed a very distressed Sakura trying to stop the bloodflow of her nose to her pajamas. Tomoyo could not help but think it was totally adorable.

Tomoyo could not help to hlet out a little chuckle as she set up sakura's pillow so she could sit back on her bed comfortably and grab her some more tissues for he nose while she thew the other's out into a wastebasket.

"Toboyo-chad?" Sakura asked slowly as she tried to look through heavy eyes.

"Yep!" Tomoyo replied cheerfully, "I thought I would bring you something good to eat, so I brought you my famous strawberry cake," she said gesturing to the nightstand where the perfect piece of cake sat. The reddest strawyberries Sakura had eve r seen sat on top of and chopped up inside of the cake. Needless to say it made Sakura drool. "Oh!" exclaimed Tomoyo, "I also brought you coffee and tea to bring you up because I didn't know which you preferred."

Sakura reached for the tea first and drank while trying to still hold her nose. Tomoyo have her a cute smile when she had put down her drink, and Sakura made her best attempt to smile back, but instead she just looked weary and sick. This cause Tomoyo to think she was still more adorable. Then she noticed something on the bedstand.

"Who brought the flowers?" asked Tomoyo with her sweet singsong voice.

"Shaoran."

The smile faltered for a moment. "Oh," she said. "I think that I should get going because it's obvious to everyone that you need your rest." with her goodbyes Tomoyo blew her a kiss from the doorway, but stuck her head back in for just a moment to ask, "By the way, Sakura. What did your charm say?"

Sakura shrugged, and informed her, "It said 'You will be blessed with good health..." Tomoyo shot her a very confused look, "I accidentally crumpled it under my pillow in sleep," she clarified. Tomoyo nodded in understanding and then said goodbye again. They gave each other sweet smiles, and Tomoyo used all bravery to kiss Sakura again ever so lightly on the lips, to which Sakura was surprised and gently held her at a distance. "You'll get sick too," she warned. Tomoyo could not resist and broke the distance with a longer kiss. She could feel the heat of fever on her face and the dryness of Sakura's upper lip from rubbing it so much with tissue and then without warning, Tomoyo broke it off and winked at her before leaving the room, leaving Sakura in a dizzy daze wanting for more.

Tomoyo waved goodbye to Sakura's family and proceeded out of the door feeling warm and fuzzy on the inside. She began to sing an old song and let the wind carry out her love tune into the night, but before she could head home, she had to stop at the cake store for a treat for Sakura when she would visit her tomorrow.

She took a look inside the window largely labelled with the word "CAKE" and saw people just cleaning up their kitchen for the day, so she immediately headed inside to look for a good treat for her lover. In the shop there was not much left besides a "Happy birthday" cake and a "#1 father" cake. But out of the corner of her eye, she noticed red and white decaration. To her left on a small shelf out of the way was a two-person heart shaped cake with fluffy red and white icing with not specifications to the message of the cake other than love.

Tomoyo knew it was the one, and went to grab it, but she did not notice the man also grabbing for the same cake. Their hands seemed to collide with each other so she stepped back and bowed to the person, "I'm so sorry sir." But when she lifted her head she wish she hadn't said it. "Oh," she disdainfully said, "Good evening, Lii."

Shaoran took a moment to look her up and down, regretting he had found her sexy earlier because now all he saw was betrayal and decieving within her good looks. "Hello."

She met his eyes and felt a bit of tension and jelousy so she decided to speak it with sarcasm in her voice, "The flowers were a nice touch. You're a real romancer, aren't you?"

With a fierce flick of her hair, she again grabbed for the cake, but was intercepted when Shaoran's hand grabbed her wrist before it even reached the cake. "Go ahead and have your stupid fling, but she'll see soon that you'll have to leave her again before too long, and she'll jump right back into my arms," he told her cooly looking right into her eyes. He let her hand drop from his grasp, and he turned and left the bakery without so much as a goodbye. Tomoyo handed the money over and left the building just in time for the lights to go out, but she had to step out into a sudden downpour of rain.

Tomoyo decided that she wouldn't let him get to her because she had been waiting for this kind of opportunity for a long time, and it meant so much more than the million other flings that she had had. She was sure.

Okay so this took me a really long time to write and I'm so sorry but it was going to slowly, and this is what I have and this is brilliantly worked into my devious plan... But Only I known what it is. ;) Thanks for sticking with me guys. See you next time. Hopefully sooner.


	8. Chapter 8

Beginnings

katlity

Sakura giggled happily as she and Tomoyo made a trip to the grocery store. Sakura was particularily excited about this day, for it would be the first where everybody was finally together from their gang in high school. Tomoyo, Lii, Chiharu, Rika, and Yamazaki. Today, they planned to go to the indoor park and have a picnic. God knows that all of them were tired of sitting around fireplaces sipping hot chocolate.

Tomoyo looked at Sakura worried as the brightly spirited young girl sifted through tomatoes looking for a smooth but firm texture. "Are you alright, Sakura?" this gave Tomoyo an opportunity to put a hand at Sakura's waist, and bring her closer. Sakura looked up at Tomoyo's cunning and mischievous face with a embarrased blush on her face. "You were only sick not long ago."

Quickly, she looked away and said with a docile voice, "I'm fine."

The two women finished thier shopping but not without many occurences of contact and then shy silence. Both of them headed back to Sakura's place to prepare the food. Things were less awkward once Kero and Tomoyo saw each other again.

"Tomoyo-chan!!" the little beast called out to her with sparkling teary eyes, "I missed you so much."

Tomoyo was skeptical of this show he was putting on. "Oh? And why is that, Kero?"

"Because nobody makes sweets as well as you do."

This statement sent Tomoyo and Sakura into shrieking shrill laughter that only young women had the power to pull off. Kero looked at the two with a confused look on his face. He was confused because he was totally sincere, which just made the girls laugh even more.

Tomoyo patted him on the head, "Don't worry, Kero. I didn't forget you either." As the magical moment happened when Tomoyo pulled out a brown box from inside her bag, Kero's face alit with the light of one thousand suns. She smiled, amused by Kero's amusement. The magical creature dove into and closed the box instantly and not long after, munching and moaning and sighing sounds could be heard from within. With their power combined, Sakura and Tomoyo only managed to rescue a few pieces of cake for themselves as they prepared food for the afternoon.

Tomoyo was prepared for Lii's presence in the afternoon. There was no way he was going to ever throw her off of her guard again. She had what she always wanted and nobody was going to take that away from her. Besides, she didn't see how he was going to be a threat when it was clear Sakura had already chosen her.

Tomoyo found herself staring at the young girl preparing the noodles. Whisps of Sakura's light brown hair tickled and traced the edges of her face as she leaned over the stove and poked the bottom of a large pot with a long wooden spoon. Sakura felt the eyes on her, and looked behind her to find two bright fascinated eyes staring back into hers. Neither of them could contain it. Their facial muscles betrayed them as a small smile creeped across their faces. It was like looking into a mirror, and then they looked away, back to poking and chopping.

A CLACK from the front door made the both jump. Both girls turned around only to point the sharp kitchen knives at Touya. He put his hands up, unimpressed by the two small girly girls squeeling with fright. "Relax, lovers," he said to the floor while being totally embarrased to say she shared the same DNA with at half of the girly screaming in the room.

Sakura put down her knife and felt simultaneously embarrased for owning half of the girly screaming. "What do you want, Touya?" she asked with annoyance.

Her brother was now slightly amused and decided to poke some fun. "I was walking by when I smelled something terrible. I thought I'd check to see if the house was on fire."

"Hillarious," she replied unimpressed. "Now get lost. Our family picnic isn't until after the new year."

Touya shrugged his shoulders and put his shoes back on. "Later, lovers," he waved and then the slam of the door let the girls know that he was gone.

Sakura let out a long sigh that blew a few whisps of hair out of her eyes. She looked to her left to see a shocked Tomoyo still holding her knife towards the doorway. Sakura had a good lol and then put her hand on top of Tomoyo's to let her know it was okay to put down the sharp object. When she came to her senses, they both started to laugh. Perhaps a couple to kisses would make everything okay...

Sakura and Tomoyo walked side by side together as they headed toward the familiar indoor park, each girl carried a picnic basket about as heavy as a bowling ball. It has snowed the night before and was still chilly so Tomoyo was wrapped in a soft green pashmina with skinny jeans and knee high brown leather boots. Sakura was a little envious of Tomoyo's snazzy wardrobe in her own jeans, snow boots, and an old winter coat. Thw two girls entered the park and layed down the blanket near the pond where earlier drama had taken place, but it was the most beautiful open spot in the entire place.

"Oh"

"My"

"God"

Rika, Naoko, Yamazaki and Chiharu all practically ran to and jumped all over Tomoyo. Sakura stepped back in fright, and tried to listen to what they were saying, but all she could hear was raised inflections, indicating questions. Every few seconds, she should hear the three scream her name or Tomoyo falling all over herself trying to get at least one word in. When she finally did, it was, "BREATH!"

All at once, they stepped back, and Tomoyo burst out of their little circle and collapsed to the ground, gasping for breath. Sakura had to laugh. She went over to grab her friend's elbow and help her to her feet. Tomoyo finally looked towards her old friends and said to them, "Well. I missed you guys." She stepped forward in her cute heels and gave permission for them all to have a group hug. Which turned into more of a group effort to squeeze the stuffing out of Tomoyo.

Lii followed the group looking amused by the spectacle they were all causing. The four were now interrogating Tomoyo with questions about her life, about her English, her job, and her new country. Syaoran went to stand by Sakura and laugh together at the five old friends. He turned to her. Her laugh reminded him about how much he loved her. He so much wanted her back. "Hey," he said to her, "why don't we break out the food? It's bound to settle down when they're stuffing their faces."

"Yeah, you're right." they both started working on bringing out the food, plates, and cutlery. Lii was doing this maybe a little too close to Sakura. Tomoyo noticed.

"Hey there, Lii!" The long haired girl cut in between them and grabbed the potatoe salad she had made earlier in the day, and just before she went away with it to set it up, gave Sakura a quick peck on the cheek making her blush with the colour of cherry blossoms and Lii flushed with the colour of cool rage.

Soon everybody was helping set the blanket out and setting up the food everywhere and began to munch on the delicious food that everybody had contributed to. There was bright conversation everywhere and everybody had fun catching up. It turned out that Yamazaki and Chiharu were engaged and running a little boutique on the other side of town. Naoko was the local librarian and was writing fantasy novels on the side. She said that she was having a little trouble getting started off, but her stories were thriving in North America, and she already had tonnes of fanmail being sent to her, of course all in English which she was well on her way to learning. And Rika was still in school learning animal medicine.

"Hey everybody, I think I'm ready for ice cream," announced Naoko, "Come with me, Tomoyo. You and I will talk about North America." Tomoyo and Naoko went in the direction of the indoor ice cream shop speaking about who knows what because they were both speaking in English.

Everybody started to fall back into conversation and they all asked Sakura about the relationship. She answered most of the questions, but avoided the embarrasing ones by pretending she couldn't hear. It was rather amusing to Lii when she started to yell like an old grandmother, "WHAT?" with her hand to her ear.

A soft cute kind of music started to flow out of Tomoyo's purse. Sakura and Lii both stared at it, and he gestured to her to pick it up. When she did, she found that the caller ID on the cell phone read "Brigitt" in English, but she proceeded to pick up the phone anyway.

"Konnichiwa," said Sakura in a confused and hesitant tone.

"Uh, hi," replied Brigitt, "Can I speak to Tommy, please?"

Totally confused, she brought the phone away from her ear and stared at it in total bewilderment. Lii took the cell from her hand put it to his own ear. He told her, "Hi, this is Tomoyo's friend, she isn't here at the moment, can I take a message?"

"Yeah," Brigitt informed in an annoyed voice, "all her girlfriends are pestering me for her ETA back home here. But I'll probably catch her later. Bye." Click.

He was utterly shocked. She had kept this little secret from them all, hadn't she? He had to go. "Here," Lii handed Sakura the phone, " I have to go, but I'll call you later, alright? See ya."

They all waved Lii goodbye while secretly contemplating to eat his share of ice cream. Naoko and tomoyo returned with ice cream cones. "somebody called for you. Lii answered it, but he didn't say anything. I guess they'll call back later."

"Do you know who it was?" she hoped to God that it wasn't Brigitt calling to spill the beans on her being a female casonova.

Sakura shook her head. Tomoyo let herself breathe.

Once all the food was gone, it was time for them all to say their goodbyes. Yamazaki asked them all, "You all remember that skii lodge? Well I've planned to spend my Christmas up there with Chiharu, but how about we all go?"

Sakura and Tomoyo looked at each other. Sakura in particular remembered the times she had spent with Lii there. Maybe she could make some new memories. "I'd love it if we could go, Tomoyo."

She smiled at her girlfriend. "Sure."

The two girls barged into the Daidouji residence with loud sounds of laughter and giggling as well as kicking off their snowy shoes and throwing off their snow covered coats.

They stopped as they both found that the living room wa scovered in candles and two cozied mugs of hot chocolate were on the coffee table. A note on the table read,

"I've gone out for the night, so you two have fun for me too! -Sonomi"

So this was probably the most frustrating chapter ever. It took me so long to write because I wrote it on paper first, and then lost the second draft. I'm sorry that it took so long, but here it is now. I hope that the winter season will inspre me more. I'm pretty excited myself about sitting in candlelight with my own lover. :) I'd like to hear about what my reasders are looking forward to! Maybe give me a few romantic ideas. I'll see you next chapter.


	9. Chapter 9

Beginnings

katlity

Alright! We're getting down to it now. I figured it was probably time since the response from the last chapter let me know that it was in my best interest to hold my audiences' interest while I have it. I am only planning two more updates after this. The conclusion and prolly an epilogue. I am looking forward to it, and I hope you are too! Let's give it our best!

Tomoyo picked up the note. She smiled mischievously. Oh, how her mother knew her daughter. She shoved the note into her pocket and turned around to Sakura. "Have a seat," she said sweetly, "I'll just go heat these up again." She quickly walked out of the room, all the while Sakura watching her little butt move around with her hips inside the low rise jeans she was wearing. She found herself hoping nobody was around.

Tomoyo practically threw the two lukewarm mugs inside of the microwave, and hurried to the stereo to find something sensual and soft the two could really get into together. 'If you know what I mean,' Tomoyo thought as her mind drifted to a more instictive part of her brain.

"AHA!" Finally, after spending at least thirty seconds tearing the CD rack apart, she found a jazzy pop collection at the bottom. Something that wasn't too soft that would get them too comfy, but something that didn't make them sit at the edge of their seats. She heard the high pitched beep of the microwave and quickly threw the stero together, then went to get the hot chocolate.

Sakura sat on the black leather couch nervously. She wondered what she was doing with Tomoyo all alone. She got the feeling they were going to get into something... Well she couldn't really describe it, but she knew it made her stomach do flips when she saw Tomoyo coming back with the hot chocolate with a smile on her lips and some lovey-dovey smooth jazz voice walking her in from behind.

Blood rushed to her face as Sakura began to catch on to the romantic surroundings. She willed all thoughts of insecurity out of her head. She also practically had to beat the faces of her father and brother out of her mind.

The mugs were now hot and sitting on the coffee table waiting to be drunk, but both the girls suspected not a sip would escape the cups. Tomoyo sat about 6 inches away from her girlfriend, and leaned in towards her, staring her right in the face. Sakura thought the look was a little creepy. "So what are you thinking about, Sakura?" she placed her hand on Sakura's lap.

"I don't know," she said bewildered. Tomoyo liked the deer in the headlights look in the other's eyes. It made her feel in control. She wondered how far she could take it.

Instead of beating around the bush, Tomoyo sneakily placed her lips on Sakura's. She could feel the heat emenating from her cheeks. Sakura sighed like she was letting out her fears, and then started to use her hands to roam about Tomoyo's shoulders and neck. Tomoyo broke the kiss for a moment to look at the brunette's face. She got the signal to keep going when she saw the shy begging in her eyes for Tomoyo to keep going.

She got the hint from Sakura, so she plunged deeper into her mouth, licking and exploring the other's mouth like she was somebody starving finding a cornucopia of food. The insistance being thrust upon Sakura was overwhelming. Even when she was with Lii, he didn't kiss her like he wanted her, he just kissed her like he was scared of breaking her. Tomoyo was touching her like she really wanted her, and she would even fight her to get what she wanted. It was hot as hell.

As Sakura and Tomoyo's breathing increased, Sakura needed to grab something, so she went for the back of Tomoyo's hair. She heard Tomoyo make the slightest of sounds she recognized as a moan of pleasure. It vibrated ever so slightly in the back of her throat. 'Maybe she likes it when I take control of her too...' she was met with an overwhelmingly positive response when Sakura pushed her over on her back by her chest and straddled her hips while still maintaining the contact with their lips.

Tomoyo whispered into Sakura's ear, "Let's go upstairs. I want to show you something."

Without question, Sakura followed her girlfriend upstairs to her bedroom. There was no question that her goal was to have sex with Tomoyo that night. If she misunderstood and Tomoyo wasn't suggesting that, Sakura definitely was.

Sakura was admittedly surprised when Tomoyo tossed a blindfold at her. "You're making me wear a blindfold?"

Tomoyo shrugged, "I'll wear one too if you want." Her tone was both mischievous and sexy. She went over to help the other put it on, and then guided her to the bed. Sakura was a little nervous, and the other girl didn't help at all when she said to her, "just wait here." Sakura waited and about five minutes of rummaging later, she came back. "Sakura?" she asked.

"Yeah?" she responded shakily.

Tomoyo started to kiss Sakura again, "Since I'm assuming you haven't slept with a woman before," she started to remove Sakura's clothes. Sakura felt suddenly insecure, but Tomoyo was unfazed, "tonight I wll show you just how much I understand what your body needs and what will make you scream."

Sakura gasped. Feelings ran throughout her entire body. She was excited, aroused, insecure, scared, shy, and needy all at the same time in that one moment. More than anything, she just wanted to get started.

Tomoyo didn't waste any time getting right to the point. She started to kiss Sakura in all the right places and was keeping her promise so far. Her neck, her ears, her shoulders, and her back were places she focused on, and then she began to remove both of their clothes. The sensation of Tomoyo's soft skin on Sakura's was a little overwhelming, since she was still blindfolded. Her feeling sense was rather acute. Sakura reached out with her hands and placed them on the other woman. One incidentally ended up on her breast which was the perfect size for her own hand, and the other on her waist. Her flesh was so soft and smooth. Even though Sakura couldn't see it, she imagined it glowed, or shined blindingly like freshly fallen snow. But she got the feeling that Tomoyo was liking Sakura touching her so she didn't hold back from making noises of approval.

"Now," Tomoyo said, "Let me show you what I can do." Tomoyo began to make a trail starting with the girl on the bottom's neck of featherlight kisses and every so often making light pinch with her teeth. She made stops at Sakura's ear which she eagerly made room for, and then at her breasts where she sucked and softly nipped at the sensitive tissue. Sakura could not keep a gasp of delight from escaping her body.

When she had finally reached the end of her trail, she moved Sakura's lithe form to the edge of the bed so that Tomoyo could sit comfortably on the floor between her legs. She spoke to her soon-to-be lover through kisses all up and down her legs and feet, "Now, Sakura," kiss, "what I'm about to do," kiss, "requires o concentration on my part," kiss, "So you will have to try to keep as still as possible while I do this."

Sakura suddenly became very nervous. She had an idea about what Tomoyo was about to do, but she couldn't be certain and she very badly just wanted to look to make sure. Unfortunately, or very fortunately, for Sakura, she barely had time to finish the thought about being nervous when she was suddenly overcome with an intense wave of pleasure engulfing her entire body. She heard herself failing to contain a squeel, but she soon just let it go and let out her high pitched moans.

After a few minutes of that, Tomoyo could see Sakura was starting to settle into the rhythm and was getting what was going on. Couldn't have that, now could we? She pushed two fingers into the opening continuing the tongue movements as well. Sakura was now gripping the sheets on the bed for dear life, and cried out into the room she hoped was far enough away so nobody would hear her embarrasing screams. The feeling of pleasure was surging from every part of her body from her scalp, eyelids, and to the bottoms of her feet. She was shaking all over and Tomoyo could tell she wanted to squirm away or move. However, if she did that, the feeling would go away, so she stayed exactly where she was.

It was like Tomoyo could read minds the way she fucked her. Suddenly, she stopped with her work, and moved to place a hot, wet kiss on the Sakura's lips. The smell from Tomoyo's mouth excited her so she lightly licked her lips, pleading for an entrance to get a taste of herself mixed in with Tomoyo. She obliged and the two entangled each other with body parts. It was like a wrstling game, the two rolled around, pinned each other, and fought for control. It just gave Sakura the excuse to move her hands wherever she wanted still being blindfolded.

"It's still my turn, Sakura," she informed the brunette once she finally had won. She knew Sakura had let her win because Sakura's strength was unbelievable for such a small girl. She reminisced about the day she had carried Tomoyo inside the house after a pot had landed on her foot. 'Hmm,' she thought, 'perhaps we can find a way to incorperate that into the bedroom time.' she shook her head. She had to concentrate on the bedroom now.

The two girls fell back on the bed together. Sakura breathing heavily with her arms above her head, and Tomoyo smiling at her. "How was it?" she asked seductively.

Sakura's face twisted in thought for a moment, then when she seemed to reach a conclusion, she reached between her own legs and shivered as she did so. Smiling in her own mischievious way at her lover, she effectively and swiftly pinned Tomoyo's arms above her head. Tomoyo gave a surprised, cut off "hey-" but was stopped by the lips on her own. She then felt Sakura feeling her own was down to Tomoyo's pleasure spot which made Tomoyo shiver in a similar fashion the way Sakura had just done.

Sakura, after a moment, let go and pulled out her hand and revealed both of her shining, wet hands to both girls. "I don't think we're done here," proclaimed Sakura, "And I think it's my turn now."

Sakura stirred her tea dreamily with one hand on her cheek. The kitchen windows glowed in early morning, and a small short haired blonde girl could be spotted through the window from miles away from her glowing pink cheeks, and smile that shined like the north star. She looked to the softly falling snow outside as if quietly layered the ground in a thick sheet of white and thought about her girlfriend who had a similar shade of skin to the snow. She still soundly slept upstairs. Sakura planned to make Tomoyo breakfast and tea, but settled for just tea when she forgot that it wasn't her house. She would make breakfast when Tomoyo was downstairs and could tell her what was okay to use.

She got up out of the stool she sat on that was perpendicular to an eating counter. She snuggled herself inside her house coat. This made her think about Syaoran. When she stayed the night at his house, she would throw on one of his big shirts when she woke up early, but since she stayed here, Tomoyo had thought ahead and set out a housecoat for her to wear in the morning. She liked that.

At around six in the morning, Tomoyo stumbled down the stairs with her hair in dissaray and her cheeks flushed. The cheeks indicated that Tomoyo had also replayed last night's moments in her head when she woke up. Sakura poured her a cup of tea as she sat down; she looked like she needed it. She took it gladly, and seemed to perk up just after her first sip.

Sakura sat back down across from Tomoyo and smiled at her, which baffled the designer because she wondered how anybody could smile before seven am. Tomoyo managed to grumble, "I'm leaving in a couple of days. Just after after Christmas."

She knew it was going to happen, but it still dissappointed Sakura to hear that she girl she fell in love with was leaving her again. "So what are our options?" when Tomoyo tilted her head in confusion, Sakura clarified, "I mean we need to be together. Maybe we should see how this goes long-distance and then decide on our future later."

"You're right," Tomoyo agreed. She wondered if Sakura would get suspicious with all the girlfriends Tomoyo had at home. She decided on her own that it would probably be her to move back home and leave that lifestyle behind. "We'll see how it goes and in a couple of months, we'll figure something out."

Although, same-sex marriages weren't allowed in Japan. They would have to throw that factor in.

Sakura walked home in the snow with a skip in her step. But that was most because she needed to pick her feet up to get through the mounting snow on the ground. She was relieved to reach her house, and just as soon as she got in and stripped off her winter clothes and fell on the couch in a heap did the telephone ring. She wondered if it was her father asking for her to bring him lunch or something.

"Hello?" she asked into the reciever.

"Hi."

"Lii-kun! H-how are you? How come you're calling?" Her own brain kicked in and reminded her that he said that he would call her at the picnic party they had had with their friends.

"Well, I needed to talk to you," he said, "it's about Tomoyo."

Sakura rlled her eyes. She expected to hear some bullshit excuse for her to not be with Tomoyo ad why she should really be with him. She had kind of gotten the drift from Syaoran and Tomoyo that they were fighting for her attention the whole time. "Yes?"

He audibly sighed into the phone, "Well do you remember when Daidouji's phone rang the other day and the girl on the other side was speaking English?"

"Yeah."

"Well..." He sounded nervous. Like he suddenly decided that what he called about wasn't important anymore, but somehow he worked up the nerve to say it. "it was her friend Brigitt from Canada, and she called to tell Tomoyo that," paused again, and Sakura's interest was piqued this time. "She called to tell Tomoyo that all of her so-called 'girlfriends' had been asking for her. I didn't believe it myself, so I went onto the website of the theatre group that Tomoyo works for and I was able to talk to a few people who all laughed at Tomoyo's less-than-noble lifestyle, and that she was hooking up with random girls all the time." He sighed, "I'm so sorry, Sakura."

Rainclouds started to move in on Sakura's bright world. "Oh," she said quietly. "I already know," she lied. She did not want to give Syaoran the satisfaction of bringing Tomoyo's image down with a naughty peice of information. Although that's exactly what it did.

"Oh!" Lii exclaimed. "Good, then. I'm glad. I just wanted to make sure you knew before you got serious with her. I just didn't think that you or her were ready for a serious relationship, because I didn't want to see you get hurt again." He sounded genuinely happy for her. Maybe she had chosen the wrong person after all.

"Thanks, Syaoran. Bai." Click.

The peice of information made sense, and he had the decency to tattle on her at least with some evidence on his side. And the way Tomoyo handled the sex was amazing. She must have had to have done it a hundred times.

She immediately dialed Tomoyo's number again and asked her to come right over. Tomoyo sounded concerned and agreed immediately.

When the doorbell rang, she opened it without facing the person coming in. The guest looked at Sakura with worry, but sat down. She guessed that Sakura was having some trouble accepting the fact that she was leaving her for the second time. "Look-" she started to say.

"I know about your other girlfriends," she said low and calm as she looked her own single girlfriend right in the eye. When Tomoyo's face twisted in shock and confusion she said, "Lii figured it out for me."

'That goddamn tattling bastard.' Thought Tomoyo.

So! Let me know what you guys thought about this chapter. I'll see you soon.


	10. Chapter 10

Beginnings

katlity

SO!! I heard that some people were disappointed in my lack of lemon. xD I'm sorry if I deceived you with me M rating, but it wasn't really something rated T. If you promise to keep reading my stories, I will give you a better lemon. ;) Enjoy. This will be the last chapter before the epilogue.

Tomoyo was left speechless. She opened her mouth to speak, but just closed it once more because nothing came out, and her mind was a blank. Tomoyo imagined taking a gun out of the large and expensive bag she clutched and shooting herself in the face. She should have known that her lifestyle in Canada would catch up with her eventually. She suddenly felt like the walls were closing in on her and she could not escape. She could only think of one thing.

Sakura stared at Tomoyo sitting across from her, praying to whoever that she had either a very good reason or that it had all been a lie. She could feel the escalating sting in her nose and then the horrible formation of tears that always came after. To hide her shameful emotions, she put her head in her hands. "Please, Tomoyo."

Tomoyo looked around the room in a panic, looking for something to inspire a good lie, or an act that would show Sakura she cared about her more than all the girls. She did the only thing she could save herself with other than, "I dunno." She knelt down before Sakura and stared deep into her glossy eyes that made her beautiful eyes magnified. This only made Tomoyo fall in love with her more. She took one of her hands in her own, "Sakura, you're the only one that I really care about-"

"Shut up!" she yanked her hand away from Tomoyo and practically sprung out of the chair she was sitting in, which caused Tomoyo to look after her in pain of guilt. Turned away, she said to her, "I didn't want to believe it, I..." it was evident that Sakura was becoming hysterical. She turned towards her again, and Tomoyo had to back up as the smaller girl started to inch towards her with her hands outstretched in a pleading way, "Why didn't you tell me? Why didn't you break up with them when you started dating me? Was this some sort of roundabout way of getting me to sleep with you?! Do you have some personal vendetta against Lii that I don't know about?!" Sakura's voice got louder and higher in pitch with each question and the tears started to flow freely down her face as her breaths became shorter and more frequent.

Tomoyo only knelt for the time and gaped at Sakura. What was she thinking when she hadn't told her about the other girls, or broken up with them as soon as she started persuing Sakura? Obviously, she wasn't thinking at all. All she could do was shake her head and look at the floor in dismay. "I just don't know, Sakura. I can't explain it." She didn't think about it, because she didn't think it mattered anymore.

"Get out," she told her coldly after an awkward moment of silence.

"No!"

Sakura glared suddenly. It looked really scary. Her eyes slitted and they burned into Tomoyo's own eyes with the rage held within. "You forget that I can make you." she clutched at the key hanging around her chest. And it occured to Tomoyo that Sakura still had magical powers she could use at any time. Particularily she thought of the more violent cards. She had no choice but to leave the premesis totally in shock and feeling the biggest pang of guilt she'd felt since she found out that it was her fault for Sakura's breakdown. Her head fell into her hands, as she gasped for air, and tears stained the corners of her eyes. She got lost before she could make a fool of herself where her only love would be able to see her.

Sakura saw Tomoyo leave through the window. She saw as the young woman clutch her chest as it heaved and put a hand over her face as to hide her shame from passers-by.

Unknowingly, Kero sat and watched sadly from the stairs. His eyebrows were knit together in concern and confusion. What was going on? He had thought that they were so happy together. What could have possibly happened?

Oh, right. Lii.

Sakura closed the bright yellow curtains in a swift angry movement, then proceeded to pace the room mumbling to herself about how she deserved better, or how her life would and has been easier without Tomoyo screwing up her feelings. Kero saw Sakura stop suddenly, and her direction of her head was entirely focused on the coffee table. That was where Tomoyo had set down her designer bag when she went to take Sakura's hand. A sad muffled high pitched whining noise came from Sakura's throat. Kero recognized it as a silent scream and a sign that hysterical crying was about to begin. He grimaced when Sakura angrily flipped the table over as she screamed for real.

The table only flipped over and landed on the couch, but it did hit a small table carrying a picture of Nadeshiko and a small vase of flowers. Water, broken glass, and flowers were spilled all over the floor. And coincidentally, all over Tomoyo's handbag. She picked it up and threw that against the wall. Kero covered his own ears as she screamed sad things at the purse as it it were Tomoyo. "My heart is not a fucking plaything! You can't just do whatever the hell you want! I hope you enjoyed the good fuck you got out of it, because that's all you're ever getting out of this poor broken woman!" Then she broke down in sobs and knelt to the floor. She held herself and cried to the floor.

Kero couldn't handle this any more. He flew out the window. Before he left, he put the card that Sakura had made herself on top of her pillow in her room so that she would see it once she went to bed. Perhaps the love card would make her re-think about her anger towards Tomoyo.

Meanwhile Sakura was still sobbing to the floor downstairs. Her arms were still tightly wrapped around her own body. Her eyes were closed tight as water dripped constantly from them. A few minutes ran by of this. It was quite possible that bruises would form in the shape of hands at her elbows, but she decided to get up and fix the living room before her father got home. She managed with great effort to flip the coffee table back over without breaking anything else, and without scuffing the floor. She put her hands on her hips and looked on to the mess she had made with the flower table. She was just on her way to go get a mop when the phone rang.

"Hello?" she asked into the receiver without a trace of the feeling she had been experiencing beforehand.

Sakura almost hung up the phone when she heard the too familiar voice from the other end. "Hi, Sakura. Did you get my message?" He sounded too hopeful and happy about his question.

Sakura scowled into the phone. She could not believe him. She couldn't believe how the both of them had acted just to get her attention. "Yeah, I got your message," she told him sternly, "and if you even think for a second that I would come running back to you just because you ruined my perfectly fine relationship with Tomoyo, you have got to have something wrong with your brain." Click.

Sakura had only set down the telephone when her ears perked up at the sound of the door opening, and her father's voice yelling into the house, "I'm home!" All his movements were graceful; he set down his shoes, took off his winter coat, and walked into the house. As he saw and began to realize what happened int he living room, he was already setting down his suitcase and floating towards the chaos zone. He turned to Sakura with wide eyes. "What... Happened?" he said slowly.

All that the professor got out of his daughter was a sad sigh and a slump towards the mess to pick it up. That was when he spotted the large expensive purse that could only have been Tomoyo's. He picked up the now broken frame of his late wife. For the first time in so many years, he felt a surge of rage throughout his body. He gripped the ruined picture of Nadeshiko and set it back down on the floor. He took his daughter by the wrist, forcing her to look up at him.

SMACK!

A large red handprint stained Sakura's face. More tears rolled down her cheeks as she stared up at her father looking helpless. She had never seen such a look in her father. His eyes were closely knit together in anger and his face was the colour of rage. In his hand he clutched the wet and broken picture of his late wife and Sakura's late mother. All of a sudden, she felt like the worst person ever.

"Look," he said sternly, "I'm sick of this. You are my daughter. You've been through way worse times than this and have gotten through, but now you can't even operate independantly!" Fujitaka looked like her was frustratingly looking through his mind carefully for the rights words. Finally, he gave up and relaxed his shoulders. "Sakura, I don't know what exactly happened, but I think that you've overreacted. You need to fix this. And..." he took in a deep breath, "I think it's time you moved out."

Sakura's eyes widened in shock. She looked at her father and saw his eyes. They held so many emotions deep within them. She saw his deep love for his family, his dedication for whatever he does, and his general kindness to all. She suddenly felt so greatful. Sakura made her way back to her father, and embraced him, but she couldn't stop a few tears from staining the strong father in front of her. "I'm sorry," she told him, "And thank you. I love you so much." He hugged her back tightly and rested his head on her own.

"Sakura," he sighed, "I love you too." He pulled back, and wiped the tears from her eyes with his thumb. "I know you're so strong. I believe in you all the way, and if it doesn't work this time, you always have a home here."

"I know," she informed her father sincerely. "I'll clean up in here, so you should go relax." she pushed him away, and he happily obliged, but he took the picture with him. Undoubtedly to go restore it.

For now, the brunette wasn't worrying about what she was going to do. Right now she would solve the problem in front of her, which, at the moment, was the messy living room. The first thing she picked up was Tomoyo's soaking purse. She emptied the contents onto a dry towel, and proceeded to dry the purse with the towel mentioned. She couldn't help but sneak a peak at all the possesions, like the wallet, cell phone (which contained ridiculous amounts of names) and there was a large black book. Sakura was ever curious, so she just opened the first page.

It was Tomoyo's sketch book. This particular book looked like it was just all of her own ideas for costumes not meant for the stage, and every design was dated, the first of which was drawn the day Tomoyo left. She had mentioned she designed costumes for theatre, but something about this picture seemed particularily odd. Was it a futuristic style of the dress? No... The floating hat? No... It was the model. The petite form, accompanied by the short brown mousy hair and flashing green eyes. She frantically flipped through the rest of the book. Every model was the same, just wearing different clothes. So once again, she felt like a total asshole. Tomoyo had thought about her all along. She wondered just how long she had loved Sakura without saying anything. All at once, Sakura understood Tomoyo's pain and why she did what she did. Now she needed to fix it.

Tomoyo sat smack dab in the middle of the costume room, mumbling to herself about the "stupid clumsy actors" while she sewed some buttons on to a shirt soaked with sweat. Needless to say, this was a job for rubber gloves and thimbles. Today she wan't designing, but making alterations and fixing things that had gotten broken down in the process of theatre. However, few had the nerve to appraoch the crazy woman, and rumours began to fly around that the last person that bothered her while she was cranky got sewn to their own costume permanently.

There were small gasps heard throughout when only Brigitt had the gall to sit next to Tomoyo on the floor and give her a look all her own. "When will you stop being so immature?"

"You can't boss me around."

"Yeah, I can."

Tomoyo looked up at the ceiling in feigned thought. "What is it you do again?" a pause and then went right back to staring at her work again, "Oh yes! _Not_ being my boss."

"That's 'administrative assistant' to you," she informed matter-of-factly, "besides, I am allowed to tell you what to do because I'm your best friend and right now I'm concered about you." Brigitt chose to take a more relaxed pose and lay her head down on top of pile of fluffy looking costumes. The back of her head was only pricked by a few pins. "I think you're thinking about it too much. You will have to get your stuff back some way. If you mails it to you: then it's over. If she delivers it personally: then you've still got a fighting chance. Plus, I'm sure she saw the design book and forgot aaalllll about your dirty naughty sexual adventures with all of your 'friends'" Brigitt made air quotes.

Tomoyo looked at her in shock, "I couldn't do it all of them at the same time!" she paused in actual thought, "although a few at a time might be nice."

Brigitt looked at her in amazement. And then a facepalm.

Tomoyo rolled her own eyes at Brigitt, but continued her repairing and sulking. Where her mind and thoughts usually flowed like a strong river, it seemed like her existence was like being stuck on the rocks in a shallow pond. But her eyes were drawn upwards and around the room when Brigitt nudged her side, which brought her attention to a practically hysterical high pitched voice.

It spoke Japanese.

She searched for the origin of the noise, and deduced that it was coming from the dressing room halls. She jumped up and made her way towards the sound using a hot-cold method. It was stange to passers-by who saw the veteran costume designer looking lost in her own place of work, but Tomoyo was on a mission. She had to stop a couple of times to wonder if she was going to toss her cookies, but continued to move forward. She couldn't miss her this time.

Meanwhile, Sakura was nearly in tears. She had made it all the way to Canada because she had gotten help from her father to find out where to go. God bless the internet. She had found her way across the country to the east side of Canada while understanding little to no English. Now that she was where she was supposed to be, it was a matter of finding the woman herself, but she was being confronted by what she assumed were actors in a dress rehearsal because of their costumes. She could tell right away that they were tomoyo's designs. She tried to ask them where Tomoyo was, but all she got back was a bunch of quizzical looks, and people pointing in different directions, and attempted slow English.

They all looked at each other, "Doesn't she look familiar?"

"Yeah, she does."

"But we haven't met have we? She only speaks Japanese or Chinese or whatever."

"Hey guys!" came one particularily loud voice, "She's the model for all of Tomoyo's designs. Look!" The person brought out a piece of paper and all of them looked at the same time and all let out an epiphanous, "Oooooohhhhhh..."

Right on time, Tomoyo came dashin around the corner, quickly followed by a panting Brigitt. Apparently, she had been following her. All the girls' eyes widened when they all saw each other. Tomoyo saw that Sakura carried her purse, with all the drawings in it. All she did was hold out her hand for it. Sakura obliged and handed it to her and bowed.

Tomoyo looked at her coldly which made Brigitt laugh on the inside because she knew the designer was feeling anything but cold, "Why did you come here?"

Sakura looked very humbled and bowed again while she spoke, "It was selfish of me to just dump you like that. I only did it because I do love you, Tomoyo," Tears crashed with the floor even though Sakura's head was still bowed. The actors became spectators of a television drama when they saw this. They somehow got the gist of what was going on. They all waited for Tomoyo's answer.

She stepped slowly towards Sakura's folded form and tipped her chin up to look at her. "I want you to understand," Sakura nodded, "You're not the only one who went through a touch time. I've been in love with you since I met you, and it was awful for me to be so close to you, yet you were in love with Lii, and I wasn't going to get in the way of your happiness." Tomoyo let go of Sakura's face, where it fell again. "I don't want you to get in the way of mine anymore. If we're going to make this work, it can't be all about you anymore. You haven't thought at all about what I went through all my grade school years, and I can't keep up a relationship all by myself." Tomoyo stepped back and watch Sakura for a minute while she waited for her to think about what she had just said.

The moment was intensified by the onlookers who stood by in silence while they looked concerned, and some of them were even crying. They were all quite entertained by the foriegn drama in front of them.

After about a full minute, Sakura stoof up straight and looked Tomoyo in the eye. "I know," she said strongly, "I'm not here to give you a second chance." Tomoyo's face was frozen in coldness at the realization that she wasn't taking her back, and then Sakura's softened, "I'm here to ask for one." She went to Tomoyo smoothly, got down on her knees, and took Tomoyo's hand in her own, which made Tomoyo reminiscent of when she did the same thing at Sakura's house the day they broke up.

Tomoyo suddenly felt the pressure. The spectators, Brigitt, and Sakura were all leaning towards her urging her to say yes. Tomoyo was at a loss for words, but all she had to do was look into the eyes of the girl she had loved more than half her own life, and she didn't need to search anymore.

She knew the answer.

What did you think? One more to go. Thanks so much for reading.


	11. Epilogue

Beginnings

katlity

Dear Nadeshiko,

Hello, it's Tomoyo. I'm sure you know me, but Sakura thought that it was a good idea for me to speak with you, sicne we're family now. That's right, Sakura and I got married today! I'm so excited to be starting a new life with her.

Sakura and I have been together now for about five years. It was rough getting started because we finally met again under conditions that I can't say were the best. Although I had been faithful to her, situationally, I was still technically dating other women. I hope you don't hate me for betraying your daughter, because I still love her so much. And get this, when she found out, she apologized to me and begged for my forgivness. When I asked her why later, she told me that it was her father's fault. And she mentioned something about Kero and the card helping her out as well. I don't understand her sometimes.

So when I told her I'd take her back, she asked to move in with me, since her dad kicked her out. I was a bit apalled, and asked her how she was going to get by only speaking Japanese. She said she would do anything to stay by my side, so she learned English and now she's going to school so that she can become an elementary teacher. She's good with kids. I wonder if she'll ever want to have children.

Speaking of which, I am so thankful to you for giving life to Sakura. I don't think I could have found a better match if I have searched the world, and at the time when we found each other, I was already on my way, but she brought me back down again.

I'd like to tell you about how beautiful the wedding was. I would say that Sakura was more beautiful than anything I have ever seen, or how the kiss made me believe in magic, or how great it was to see all of our family and friends support us (even Fujitaka and my mom were getting along!). I'd like to tell you, but I'm sure you were there and already saw it.

The reason I know is because Sakura told me that she knew you were leaving tonight. I don't know why. I think it's because it's apparent she's finally going to be okay so you don't have to worry anymore. I'll take good care of her, so you can move on, but please never forget, and both of us will meet you again someday.

Thank you again. For everything you've done for the both of us.

Love,

Tomoyo Daidouji


End file.
